Earth-Friendly American Ethanol: An Important Success Story

(NewsUSA) – Sponsored News – There is little question ethanol is helping America reduce its dependence on foreign oil — lowering gasoline prices, improving the environment with lower emissions and growing the economy with jobs that can’t be outsourced. In 2015 alone, the ethanol industry created and supported more than 350,000 jobs. Ethanol also contributed nearly $ 44 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — a number exceeding the total GDP of many countries. And the production of 14.7 billion gallons of ethanol means that the U.S. needed to import 527 million fewer barrels of crude oil to meet the country’s demand for gasoline. E15 (15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline), a 21st-century fuel for 21st-century cars, is specially designed to work with today’s modern vehicles because its extra octane helps engines perform at their best. E15 is approved for all vehicles model year 2001 and newer, which accounts for more than 84 percent of all vehicles on the road, demonstrating that there is a market ready for a less expensive, higher octane, more environmentally-friendly alternative fuel. New technologies are helping make Earth-friendly American ethanol even more sustainable. Enogen corn enzyme technology, available only from Syngenta, is an in-seed innovation and the industry’s only corn designed specifically to enhance ethanol production. By incorporating grain from Enogen corn hybrids into its existing production process, an ethanol plant can reduce the viscosity of its corn mash from a consistency of oatmeal to lemonade, enhancing production efficiency and decreasing costs. Iowa-based Quad County Corn Processors (QCCP) helped kick off a new era for the biofuels industry when it opened its 2-million-gallon cellulosic ethanol facility. QCCP employs Cellerate, a revolutionary new process technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from corn kernel fiber — in addition to the starch that’s typically processed. Cellerate is marketed to ethanol plants in North America exclusively by Syngenta. With Cellerate, the biofuels industry now has the technology available to create two billion gallons of additional cellulosic ethanol — all from the same kernel of corn. The introduction of these technologies uniquely upholds Syngenta’s efforts to address the global food security challenge. Enogen and Cellerate are direct examples of how Syngenta is bringing The Good Growth Plan, a framework of six ambitious commitments designed to increase productivity while using fewer resources, to life by helping make ethanol even more sustainable. An important success story, American ethanol is making a significant contribution to the U.S. economy, helping to drive down gasoline prices for consumers and reduce carbon emissions for a cleaner environment.NewsUSA Environment